Learner Analysis

• The best time to offer the training would be during the day. Teachers can prepare for a substitute teacher in order to attend the training for a half day, or they can schedule to have the training during in-service time.
• The training will last a half day where teachers will be educated on the basics, moderate skills, and advanced tips of Edmodo and then get some work time to set up their own Edmodo site.
• The training will need to take place in a computer lab with a projector and enough computers or laptops for each teacher attending the training

• Teachers are often lifelong learners that are eager to learn new things. We can expect very proactive and eager learners in our class.
• The average teacher might not be actively looking for ways to incorporate more technology in their classroom. We will need to concentrate on aspects of Edmodo that are user friendly and present a HIGH amount of applicable features that teachers can't wait to try. (I'm thinking about the homework help idea through the chat program, and the homework turn-in feature that allows teachers to view and assign grades to homework that has been uploaded.)
• The average teacher might not be the most tech-savvy person, so we will need to focus on making our tutorial as user-friendly as possible. We might want to include a learning objective for some related vocabulary associated with online social networking sites (maybe in a beginner or basic option tutorial).

• Teachers usually have a high learning ability, and should be familiar with good teaching practices. Because of this, they will probably be skeptical of a program that does not utilize best teaching practices, so we will need to apply the best learning theory. We will want to make sure that our module includes adult learner-friendly and connectivism-based theory-driven practice.
• Again, some teachers are not accustomed to the newest technology. We might consider creating an optional beginner's tutorial to cover simple internet information, such as how to log in to edmodo, how to set up a student roster and assign passwords to students, and how to access the basic features of the website. (Any suggestions from the group as to what would be considered basic edmodo website features, feel free to add them here!:) Also, check out this article about 15 Things Teachers and Students Can Do With Edmodo!

• Teachers might have experienced both the positive and negative sides to a social network such as facebook, and might have some misconceptions about Edmodo. For example, teachers might dismiss the resource because of a preconceived notion that social networks aren't secure and student/learner friendly places. Edmodo is completely secure and is in fact promoted for use by district personnel in my area. I know of many schools that have Edmodo networks and would benefit from our training. How can we promote this idea further through the design of our tutorial?
• We might benefit from teaching our students how to set up online expectations for their student discourse on Edmodo. Since students will be using Edmodo to have class discussions online, proper grammar, respect, and conventional spelling (no texting lingo) expectations should be set up and enforced. We can teach teachers how to set up those expectations and reinforce them. This might seem like common sense, but including it in our tutorial will help us relate to our learner; teachers care about this and they will start to trust our tutorial if this is addressed in one of our modules.
• Teachers might have experience with Edmodo, since it is relatively common and popular. We will want to include advanced tips in our tutorial to ensure that even our advanced students will learn from the experience. I propose dividing the tutorial up into a beginner's section, a regular section, and an advanced tips section.

• It's important for our tutorial to incorporate an adult learner approach. We can include in our tutorial an assignment that offers teachers three choices for a skill they can apply while creating their own Edmodo classroom. Perhaps they can choose between (1) setting up an assignment that requires students to read a short story or article on a website, or do some research and then post a response in a discussion thread (2) Creating a written assignment that will be typed and then submitted to Edmodo through the turn-in system or (3) complete a group project that will include using uploaded library resources and collaborating through the Edmodo site within their group chat room. The assignment would also include the use a poll to allow students to vote on a topic for their project, and they all will have a required quiz that students will complete at the end of the project. (Teachers would like an assignment like this, because it would allow them to automatically start using the site for something they will be able to teach to their own classes.)
• Our tutorial should include both audio and visual step-by-step directions for setting up everything, so that teachers who are both audio and visual learners, as well as those who learn best by observing and modeling, can all benefit from the tutorial. (A blob of written text would not be helpful or effective.) We can use Fraps and Flash Professional to create our videos.
• We might want to include a Q&A section in our tutorial that can link to segments within the training, so that teachers can go back to a video they watched previously by finding that topic in a list of Q&A categories.

On to Contextual Analysis ----->